Christmas Time
by DontDeny
Summary: all the Christmas' that Emma and Neal have shared together. (In an AU where Neal didn't die.)
1. That First Christmas Together

They hadn't had many Christmas' together. Only a handful. But Neal remembered every single one of them. Coming from, a different world into this one and learning about Christmas from the Darling family, he had become quite obsessed with it. He celebrated Christmas once with the Darlings before being taken to Neverland and that was the best Christmas he would have for a very long time.

Until he met Emma. Now Emma had had her fair share of Christmas' in several different foster homes and she quite frankly, never really understood the appeal. To her Christmas was not a time for happiness. She recalled how a lot of kids got adopted in the Christmas season and how their faces would light up at the thought of getting real parents and actual gifts for Christmas. Those stuck in the foster homes were not so grateful. Some of them were better than others and she had got some pretty cool gifts in her time, but still Christmas to her didn't really mean all that much. Somehow though, when she met Neal, that all changed.

She had never even expected to meet him in the first place, let alone fall in love with him, so any time spent with him was a gift to her. Yes, living in the bug wasn't great, but it felt more like home than any house she'd ever been in. After a few months together on the road, Emma and Neal started to notice Christmas trees and decorations going up. The first tree they saw was in a town centre where they had been staying near. They drove through the centre at night on their way to a new place and they saw the tree with all the lights shining bright.

Neals eyes lit up. "Em." He whispered in awe. She awoke from her sleep to see what he was so amazed by. "Neal, it's just a tree." She was groggy and didn't really like being woken up.

"But that means it's Christmas time!" Emma had never seen him get so excited.

"What's so great about Christmas anyway?" Neal looked shocked but she carried on. "Besides, people start putting up their trees straight after Halloween these days, I bet it's only November."

Neal slowed the car down and parked in the nearest space he could find.

"Why have we stopped?" Emma was confused.

"You seriously don't like Christmas?"

"Every Christmas I've ever had has sucked. I thought it would be the same for you."

"Well I've only ever had one proper Christmas, with an old foster family.."

"Until they gave you away?"

He sighed. "Something like that. But ever since then I've been a bit obsessed with Christmas. I think it's great to try and spread happiness like that."

"Yeah well it doesn't always work out that way."

"Fine then.." He placed a hand on his heart and held her hand in the other. "I, Neal Cassidy promise you, Emma Swan to give you the best Christmas you'll ever have."

"And how do you plan on that? We have no money and nowhere to live..."

But Neal was undeterred. "You'll see."

And despite everything, Neal came good on his promise. That year Emma really did enjoy Christmas for the first time. Somehow he had managed to get the smallest fake tree Emma had ever seen and put it in the back of the bug. He had sold something (he wouldn't tell her what) to buy her a gift. He got her a swan ornament made of glass. She had gasped when she saw it. "Oh Neal, it's so lovely." (Unfortunately she no longer owned this ornament as Neal had smashed it by accident when he swerved the car to avoid an accident, but she still treasured the memory.) "I got you something too." She added shyly. She pulled out a bag and handed him the gift. Inside was the nicest book he had ever seen. "Emma how did you get this?"

"I have my ways. Open it." He did as he was told. Inside she had put leaflets from every single hotel they had crashed in and little mementos from all the places they had visited. "Oh Emma." He kissed her gently. She pulled him closer and deepened the kiss. The words "I love you" were there but neither of them could bring themselves to say it yet. They didn't need to though, they were just so happy in this moment that being together was enough.

He teased her as she lay on his lap and he stroked her hair. "I thought you didn't like Christmas anyway."

"I think I've changed my mind."

"Oh really?!"

"Mmhmm. You seem to have some kind of effect on me, Neal Cassidy." Neal grinned as Emma drifted off to sleep. Yes, that really was the best Christmas both of them had had in such a long time. And it would be many years again before they had another like it.


	2. Neals first Christmas in Storybrooke

(In an AU world where Neal never even met Tamara)

The next Christmas that they would have with each other would not come for years. After Emma went to jail and Neal fled to New York, they would not even see each other until Emma went looking for son. When she found that it was Neal and when Neal found that he had a son, both of their lives changed dramatically.

Neal went with them to Storybrooke. Even though he had swore to himself that he would never see his father again, he still came for his son. He wanted to give Henry the life that Neal himself had missed out on.

But anyway, he stayed in Storybrooke a lot longer than he was expecting to. And honestly, despite everything, he really didn't want to leave. He had grown to love Henry (not that it had taken him long; the kid was great) and being around Emma all the time had made him fall in love with her all over again. Not that she knew that. He was keeping it strictly on a 'hey we share a kid' basis. That is until Christmas time. Christmas time for Neal was still his favourite time of year, despite the fact that it had been 11 years since the Christmas in the bug with Emma. He had the Christmas' since then on his own. Sometimes he had sneaked into movie theatres and watched a couple of Christmas films to keep warm. That was where his love for Christmas films began. Even though he was against magic, for obvious reasons, the magic of Christmas was something completely different. And now he could share that with his son.

Somehow Henry had been the one to organise Christmas dinner, which meant Henry, Neal, Emma, Snow, Charming, Regina, Belle and (as much as Neal didn't like it) Rumplestilskin would all be there. Henry had used the 'because we're family' reason combined with a puppy dog face to get them all to agree to it. Surprisingly and even with his fathers presence, it was actually a pretty damn good Christmas. Snow had insisted on cooking everything (and according to Emma had a crazy meltdown when Charming dared tried to help) and went overboard, meaning there was enough food for the eight of them plus everyone staying at Granny's! Regina made dessert and with a completely deadpan face told everyone it was apple pie. She was the only one who found that joke funny, but everyone did relax when it was just an ordinary Christmas pudding.

And presents. Henry sure did get spoilt! Neal had Gepetto make Henry an upgrade on his wooden swords, so now they were bigger. He wasn't sure the women looked all too impressed but Charming gave a look of approval. Henry also received video games from Regina, clothes from Snow and Charming, a book from Belle and Rumple and Emma (who insisted she was nothing like her mother) went a little overboard and got him the new games console he wanted. Neal was so happy in this moment that he had a son. A son with the woman he was still in love with no less. And he had secretly got Emma a gift, but that would have to wait until everyone else had left.

And so when Regina left with Henry, Rumple and Belle had gone back to the shop and Snow and Charming went to bed, Neal stayed a little while longer to help Emma clean up.

"You don't have to help you know." She said to him.

"Oh I know, but I, er, wanted to give you your present."

She looked at him. "You shouldn't have."

"I wanted to." He took the present out of his coat that was hanging on the door and handed it to her. When she opened it she recognised it straight away and gasped. "I can't believe you kept this."

It was the same book she had given to him 11 years ago.

"Open it."

She did and alongside the things that she had stuck in there were photos of Henry. Different ones of him playing and with different people. He had got the photos from Snow who was always grateful to anyone trying to make Emma happy. "This is really great Neal."

"Now you can put new memories in there alongside the old ones."

She smiled. "I didn't get you anything." She admitted.

He shrugged. "I didn't expect you to. Besides, you got me the best present this year by letting me into Henry's life."

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner."

"You were hurt. I understand." She nodded and tried not to let the tears fall from her eyes.

Neal got up to leave and she walked him to the door. "Thanks for the present Neal."

"You're very welcome."

They stayed at the door for a little while just looking at each other and Emma absentmindedly played with her swan necklace. Another present Neal had given her, a long time ago.

He nodded at her playing with it. "I'm surprised you kept that."

"You kept the book." She stated.

"I suppose I did." They looked each other in the eye and before he even knew what was happening, she leaned in and kissed him. His eyes widened in shock but he quickly recovered and kissed her back. She stepped back.

"Merry Christmas Neal."

"Merry Christmas Emma." She closed the door on him then but he still walked back to his hotel room with a huge grin on his face. It was definitely a Christmas to remember.


End file.
